How Biden's firm line with Republicans draws on lesson of Obama's mistakes

[DonViejo]

Joan E Greve in Washington
@joanegreve

Sat 1 May 2021 03.00 EDT

The president has sought bipartisan support but not at the cost of delay and dilution of his bold policies

Joan E Greve in Washington
@joanegreve
Sat 1 May 2021 03.00 EDT

Joe Biden started his presidential campaign with promises to be a unifying force in Washington who would help lawmakers come together to achieve bipartisan reform. But over his first 100 days in office, Biden’s message to Republicans in Congress has been closer to this: get on board or get out of my way.

This willingness to go it alone if necessary appears to be a hard-won lesson from the early years of Barack Obama’s presidency, when Democrats negotiated with Republicans on major bills only to have them vote against the final proposals.

It has also prompted some – especially on the left of the Democratic party – to make early comparisons between Biden and Obama that favor the current president as a more dynamic, determined and ruthless political force for progressive change than his old boss.

Just three months into his presidency, Biden has already signed the $1.9tn coronavirus relief package, which did not attract a single Republican vote in Congress. Delivering his first presidential address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, Biden signaled he was willing to take a similar approach to infrastructure if necessary.

more
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/01/how-bidens-firm-line-with-republicans-draws-on-lesson-of-obamas-mistakes

[greymattermom]

1. Voting against big budget bills

should also include an opt out statement. Save tax money, don't spend it in my state.

[MyOwnPeace]

2. The RepubliQans.......

have continually proven that they have NO intention of working with Joe. They have picked up where they left off with President Obama - doing what they can to make the Democrat a 1-term president.
And now they cry: "He won't work with us - he's mean - he doesn't care to be bipartisan!"
To the RepubliQans, "Work together" means "DO IT THEIR WAY!"

[StarfishSaver]

3. Interesting - but I wouldn't call these "Obama's mistakes."

This is a rather dismissive and tone-deaf characterization and seems to imply that President Obama screwed up where President Biden is succeeding and that the two men operated within the same contexts on the same playing field in the same time in history. Most of Obama's difficulties were not caused by any "mistakes" he made - unless we assume that being born Black was some kind of an error.

[blm]

5. Obama's hands were tied on some issues and the GOP

had not yet shown how completely bankrupt they were at the time. The economy was in worst condition since the Depression and Republicans wouldn’t lift a finger to help. A helluva lesson to learn.

Context is everything.

[StarfishSaver]

6. Exactly

That's why I resent the, "Obama screwed it up but Biden's getting it right" framing.

I have no doubt that if Biden had been elected in 2008, he probably would have done the same things that Obama did - and likely not as well.

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

9. I see where you are coming from, but

Obama did make the mistake of trying to compromise with Republicans back then...but unbeknownst to him or Biden at the time was that the Republicans weren’t interested in true compromise and their real goal was to be disruptive obstructiveness.....I agree if Biden (or any Democrat) was POTUS at that time he would have made the same mistake.....but now that he is president at this time he has learned the lessons from that era

Edit - and my critique isn’t meant to be an attack on Obama...in life we all make mistakes, but what comes out of them are lessens learned and how not to repeat them...I would be more upset if Biden didn’t learn any lessons from that time and tried the same approach

[AZProgressive]

10. I agree

I remember in Obama's first 100 days Republicans were actually praising Obama for reaching out in good faith while remaining critical of House Democrats. Obama would often reach out to Republicans in good faith and they turn around and become obstructionists.

One thing I'm glad is they learned their lesson.

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

11. I read somewhere

Where during the health care debates Obama was giving Grassley everything he wanted, but Grassley still continued to not support the bill.

Edit - I found the article

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/obama-admits-he-was-overconfident-about-health-care-reform-in-upcoming-white-house-memoir-2020-10-26

So he details how his administration tried wooing two moderate Republicans to its side. They included Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, whom Obama describes as having a “long, hangdog face and throaty Midwestern drawl.” Grassley would “hem and haw about this or that problem he had with the bill without ever telling us what exactly it would take to get him to yes,” the former president writes.

[PatSeg]

15. I think Obama sincerely wanted to be

a unifier at a time when republicans weren't going to have any of that. Perhaps an older, more experienced politician would have seen the pitfalls or maybe his approach might have worked at a different time. Meanwhile, he had to deal with the barrage of racism from right-wing media and republicans in congress, who tried to label him as radical and dangerous when he was actually quite moderate. The continuous implication was he was the "other" and could not be trusted. With that hanging over his head all the time, it is amazing that he was able to accomplish as much as he did.

I think Obama wanted to be Lincoln and Biden wants to be FDR.

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

17. True

With that hanging over his head all the time, it is amazing that he was able to accomplish as much as he did.

True...

[StarfishSaver]

12. I hear you, but I don't know if that was actually a "mistake"

Yes, in hindsight we can see that it didn't go well. But had he taken another tack, for example played tough and refused to compromise, we don't know that he would have gotten any more than he got - and people would now probably be looking back and blaming him for being too "my way or the highway" and for the fact that Republicans are dig in their heels and behave the way they do today. "Much of the Republican intransigence was triggered by Obama's failure to compromise with them. If Obama had reached out more and tried to work with them instead of being so obstinate, he would have accomplished so much more and we wouldn't be in the situation we are today ... Biden learned from Obama's mistakes and he is now making clear he is open to reaching out and compromising with the Republicans ..."

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

16. You are right

Regardless of what approach Obama would have taken, Republicans would have blamed him and said he sucked...and that is why I wish he had been more aggressive and dropped trying to be bipartisan earlier than he did....but 20/20 is hindsight and he was in a tough position

[Solomon]

7. Phew! Thank you for saving me the trouble of saying it.

[StarfishSaver]

8. It's exhausting, isn't it?

[dsc]

13. He does deserve some of the blame here

I supported Clinton in the primaries (after supporting other candidates who dropped out) and did so for three big reasons. One was his campaigning explicitly on working with the GOP. A lot of crap was given to Hillary when she scoffed at it, but she was dead right about the lessons of the 1990's in regards to GOP being willing to work with us. That said, he also had a Democratic caucus in the Senate that was less able to rebuke bipartisanship for bipartisanship's sake.

[tanyev]

14. +1.

[blm]

4. Learning NOT to trust Republicans on economic and

voting justice was a tough lesson to learn for some of the old timers who remember working WITH more normal people once upon a time.

[mopinko]

18. biden has the polls.

obama didnt.
trump did.